Gotham Season 2 Episode 15 Recap “Mad Grey Dawn”

Ed Nygma lurks unnoticed at the Gotham City Museum near a one of the museum’s most intriguing exhibits, a huge bomb with a very long fuse. Using a tiny remote control, Nygma causes the fuse to ignite. The patrons of the museum scatter as the fuse slowly burns closer and closer to the real bomb in the center of the room leaving only Nygma awaiting the explosion. But strangely enough, the huge bomb does not explode. Instead, it fills the room with smoke like a huge firecracker, creating the perfect cover for Nygma to complete his task. He darts around the room defacing many of the museum’s paintings and by the time the police arrive at the scene, Nygma had already escaped completely unseen.

Nygma’s exploits were, however, caught on camera so Captain Barnes reviews the footage with Detective Gordon and Detective Bullock at the police department. Because of Nygma’s disguise, the three of them could not identify the man they were watching vandalize the precious artwork to be their own coworker. Bullock and Gordon head out of Barnes’s office to start the investigation but Barnes asks Gordon to hang back to talk to him alone. When Bullock leaves the office, Barnes tells Gordon about an anonymous tip that the Internal Affairs office received about the murder of Theo Galavan. According to Barnes, the tip came from an eyewitness who claims to have seen Detective Gordon shoot and kill Galavan. Gordon lies to Barnes once again, telling him that he had nothing to do with Galavan’s murder.
Barnes still looks suspicious of Gordon but he gives him the benefit of the doubt and allows him to leave the office. Nygma approaches Gordon and Bullock as the two detectives prepare to head to the Gotham Museum to investigate. He says he wants to the disappearance of his missing girlfriend Kristen Kringle but Gordon just doesn’t have time. Gordon assures him that he will find out what happened to Kristen and rather than look worried, Nygma strangely looks a little excited about it.

You’ll never guess who’s knocking on Butch and Tabitha’s door while all of this museum drama is happening. Butch is pretty shocked to see that Penguin has visited his headquarters after all the things that happened between them in the past. Tabitha isn’t pleased to see Penguin at all even though he came bearing a cupcake and a certificate proving his sanity. Even though Penguin only wants to make amends Tabitha’s still bitter that he killed her brother, Theo Galavan. You’d think she would be able to get past that rather easily considering all the things Galavan put Penguin through. Butch convinces Tabitha not to kill Penguin but she couldn’t let him go without a little bit of punishment.

At the GCPD, Gordon fills Bullock in about the conversation he had with Captain Barnes. He asks Bullock to get some information from his friend in the Internal Affairs office at the station. The goal is to find out who made the anonymous tip so that Gordon can protect his reputation. He needs to know exactly what information they have on him.

Union Railway Station

The detectives go to the museum where they have to make sense of the cryptic message left by Nygma. Gordon uses his keen detective skills to figure out that the paintings that were marked with large green question marks were clues to the location of Nygma’s next crime. He suspects that the vandal’s next move will be to bomb the Union Railway Station so he and Bullock hurry off to stop him.

The police evacuate the train station and search for the explosive. Unbeknownst to them, Nygma is again lurking in the shadows observing carefully. Gordon spots a locker marked with a green question mark similar to the ones on the paintings at the museum. He grabs a random crowbar off the floor and pries the locker door off the hinges. Inside he discovers a ticking time bomb ready to explode. With only seconds left to spare, he tosses the bomb into a concrete display and runs for cover, narrowly escaping the blast radius. With his plan foiled and Gordon still alive, Nygma retreats before anyone notices.

Captain Barnes later arrives at the scene where Gordon fills him in about the bomb. The Captain tells Gordon that he wants all hands on deck to investigate the person behind the recent terror attacks then heads over to speak to Officer Pinkney who was busy signing a chain of custody form for Ed Nygma. After obtaining the signature, Nygma goes over to congratulate Gordon on figuring out the bomb puzzle. Gordon is still oblivious to the fact that Nygma, someone who he’s worked with for over a year, has been causing trouble for the GCPD.

Magic Mushrooms

Elsewhere, Bruce and Selina visit young Ivy Pepper at the headquarters for the gang that grows and sells “magic mushrooms.” The mushrooms are sold as an illegal drug that has different adverse effects on the people who consume them. Ivy is the gang’s main cultivator of the mushrooms. Selina and Bruce are there to rob the gang of a few dollars. Although Bruce is rich, he doesn’t want to use his own wealth as a crutch so he volunteers to assist in the heist. Ivy points them in the direction of the money so Bruce and Selina head upstairs to find it. As the two of them sneak around the house they are able to move around undetected due to the fact that Ivy has drugged the gang with the mushrooms she had been growing. Most of the gang members are either sleeping or hallucinating so Bruce and Selina have few problems finding the money. As they try to escape, Sonny Gilzean, the leader of the gang arrives with just enough time to keep them from getting away.

Later, Nygma gets a surprise visit from his old friend, Penguin, who despite being tarred and feather by Tabitha and Butch looks like he’s in high spirits. Although his meeting with Butch was to make amends and deliver a cupcake, he has a slightly different goal for visiting Nygma. He wants to convince Nygma that violence is not the answer. Little does Penguin know that Nygma is just getting started to hit his stride as a true villain. Nygma dismisses Penguin’s advice and says goodbye to his old friend as he walks him out of the apartment.

At the GCPD, Bullock tells Gordon that he had been asking about the anonymous tip that points to Gordon as Galavan’s killer. Internal Affairs had informed Bullock that Gordon is now the prime suspect in the murder of Theo Galavan.

Back at his gang’s headquarter, Sonny Gilzean attempts to punish Selina for trying to steal from his gang, but he turns his attention to Bruce when he steps in to defend her. Bruce attempts to fight Sonny but he’s outmatched by the big thug. Sonny continuously pummels Bruce who doesn’t back down. Bruce is finally able to get the upper hand when Sonny makes the mistake of disrespecting Bruce’s late parents. He delivers a few powerful punches to Sonny’s face, giving him and Selina enough time to escape with the money.

Elijah Van Dahl

During all this chaos, for the first time, Penguin is able to visit his mother’s grave. He was imprisoned during her actual funeral so standing in front of her headstone he can now officially say goodbye. As Penguin bids his mother a teary-eyed farewell, a man approaches the grave with a bouquet of lilies, Mrs. Cobblepot’s favorite flower. He introduces himself as Elijah Van Dahl and after a brief conversation, it dawns on Elijah that he is Penguin’s father.

Elijah ends up taking Penguin to the large manor he calls home. He tells Penguin the story of how he met his late mother and why he wasn’t around to raise his son. Elijah came from a wealthy family that didn’t approve of him dating Gertrude Cobblepot who worked for them as a cook. Gertrude and Elijah went their separate ways at the urging of his parents but she never told Elijah that she was pregnant. He had no idea she would later give birth to his son. Knowing that Penguin is all alone in the world, Elijah invites him to be a part of his big happy family.

The silence is deafening at the dinner table of Leslie and Detective Gordon that evening. Leslie tries to get Gordon to open up but he’s too preoccupied to even eat. He tells her that Internal Affairs is reopening his case and due to an eye witness’s account. Gordon tries his best to put Leslie’s mind at ease about the situation but she’s far too tired of that night torturing. She just can’t trust Gordon to make it all go away. So, while Gordon is at home trying to figure out a way out of his current situation Nygma is making a house call of his own to the apartment of Officer Pinkney, the officer from who Nygma obtained the chain of custody form signature earlier in the episode. But when Pinkney turns his back to lead him into the house, Nygma bashes him over the head with a crowbar then beats him to death.

The Set Up

After pouring over the evidence from the train station bombing for a while, Gordon is relieved when Bullock finally calls him with good news. Apparently the call that detonated the bomb at the station came from a payphone in a local apartment complex. Gordon quickly heads over to the apartment complex to investigate but when he arrives at the payphone, he notices one apartment unit’s door is ajar. He enters with this gun drawn and sees the body of Officer Pinkney laying across the floor covered in blood. Before Gordon’s able to make sense of the scene in front of him, Detective Barnes enters the apartment and confronts him. Barnes tells Gordon that he received a message from Pinkney instructing him to meet him at his apartment. The message said the Pinkney wanted the Captain to stop by so they could discuss Gordon outside of work. From Barnes’s point of view, t looks like Gordon was the one who killed Pinkney. Barnes orders Gordon to come with him to the police station for interrogation. Gordon tries to plead his case but the evidence is stacked against him. The crowbar used in Pinkney’s murder literally has Gordon’s fingerprints all over it. It was the same crowbar Gordon used to pry open the locker at the train station. Gordon insists that the forensics department traced the bomb trigger to the payphone outside of Pinkney’s apartment but according to Barnes, that bit of paperwork was missing from the evidence. This was all a part of Nygma’s plan. He planted the murder weapon and lead Gordon to the scene of the crime. Nygma even tricked Pinkney into signing off on the witness statement that implemented Gordon in Galavan’s murder. He has made it look as though Gordon got wind that Pinkney knew that he killed Galavan so he went to his house and beat him to death with the crowbar to silence him. Gordon adamantly insists that he is being set up but Barnes just doesn’t trust him. He drags Gordon out of the police station in front of his fellow officers and sends him to the county jail to be held until his trial.

After a four-week murder trial, Detective Gordon was sentenced to 30 years to be served at Blackgate Penitentiary. Coincidentally, hours after the announcement of Gordon’s sentence his ex-fiancé Barbara Keane wakes up out of her coma at Arkham Asylum.

When Leslie visits Gordon in the holding cell at the county jail she tells him that she will remain loyal to him forever but Gordon demands that she moves on with her life. He orders her never to contact him again. In the final scene of the episode, Gordon is officially moved to Blackgate to start his sentence. Bullock rides along with Gordon in the transport vehicle and vows that he will find the person who set him up.